Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of glass, ceramic, stone, wood, plastic, coconut shells or other material, having one or more colors and placed on a surface in an arrangement such as a design, an image, a pattern, an abstract image, or any other tile combination. Mosaic may be used as decorative art, whether as part of an interior or an exterior decoration of a building or as a cultural or spiritual object, such as in cathedrals.
Generating a mosaic involves two stages, which may be performed together, but are usually performed separately. First, the mosaic maker has to decide on the color and placement of the different tiles in the mosaic, in order to create the desired effect of the image, the pattern or the arrangement of the tiles. This stage is traditionally performed by using tools such as paper, pens, and computer-aided drawing tools. These traditional methods generally require a high level of artistry on the part of the mosaic maker. Additionally, the resulting design is not presented in a particularly realistic manner to a user, due to the differences in color or pattern between the tiles as simulated by a computer or other drawing tools and the actual tiles used when creating a mosaic tile arrangement. When using a computerized tool, it may not be possible for the user to make slight changes to the resulting design, since changing the original picture and repeating the design generation process will not necessarily yield the expected result. The construction of a mosaic tile arrangement should also support dividing the resulting arrangement into a number of pages, or sections. Each section that is created should be of predetermined maximum dimensions. The maximum dimensions for each section are at least in part derived from the equipment used for the second stage, during which mosaic tiles are selected and placed on each section and the sections are marked, packaged, and shipped to the place where the sections are attached to an ultimate destination, such as a wall, a floor, or another area to be decorated. Dividing the arrangement into the proper number and sized sections is further challenging if the tiles are not arranged in a grid.
The second stage is the tile placement stage, in which the tiles are placed on a surface according to the design. In some situations, the surface on which the tiles are placed may be the final destination of the mosaic. Alternatively, the surface on which the tiles are placed is a temporary surface. The temporary surface may be a section of a sheet of material or a substrate that may include an adhesive applied to the surface. The sheet of material may be a flexible fabric mesh or any other substrate or underlayment material that enables sections of the mosaic tile arrangement made up of multiple tiles arranged in a pattern to be transported to a destination and installed in a designated location. This step is labor-intensive and error-prone if carried out manually.
There is thus a need for a method and apparatus for efficiently receiving a digitized image, determining a desired arrangement of mosaic tiles depicting the digitized image, and implementing automated loading and placement of the mosaic tiles that will recreate the image in the form of a mosaic tile arrangement.
The present disclosure is directed to addressing one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems associated with automated mosaic tile setting.